Wrap My Bandage
by fren
Summary: AU. While Raph waits for Casey to bring back dinner, he gets an unexpected visit from a stranger.  [Raphael x Leonardo, turtles singing a spoof of a Rent song, mentions of Venus.]


**Title--** Wrap My Bandage  
**Rating--** T  
**Summary--** AU. While Raph waits for Casey to bring back dinner, he gets an unexpected visit from a stranger. ( Raphael x Leonardo, turtles singing a spoof of a Rent song, mentions of Venus. )  
**Disclaimer--** Don't own TMNT, or Rent's _Light My Candle_.  
**Note--** People on LiveJournal have probably already seen this, so sorry XD. Anyway, if you've never heard the song _Light My Candle_ before, here it be:

www. bloody-tides. org/moshi/lmc. m4a  
(don't use spaces when you actually type it into the address bar.)

* * *

_ About time_, was what Raphael thought as he got up to answer the three knocks on the door. 

Casey had been gone for, what? An hour? Knowing him, he probably got rung up by April and distracted. And now he's gone and forgotten his keys. Raph sighed, finally making it to the door after tripping over weights, clothes, and other assorted objects lying around. It was worse that they had no lights; the last of their candles had burned out two nights ago. And to get more was a side-job given to Casey when he'd stepped out to retrieve food.

Raph cursed, undoing the lock. It's things like this that made him re-think about bunking with the moron. Case was a good friend, the best by far as much as Raph was concerned, just...a lug-head.

Raphael opened the door. _"Got the beers_?"

"_I need some help_," answered a voice that entirely _wasn't_ Casey's.

Raph blinked, studying the turtle in front of him, who also wore a ninja mask except his was blue. The face made his memories shift, but no name came to mind. He squinted, trying to think.

"_I know you_; _you're_..." Raph stopped, noticing the slight tremor of the newcomer. "_You're shiverin'_."

He opened the door wider and shuddered as more cold air, fresh from the outdoors, flooded in. The stranger hurriedly stepped inside, though he looked uncomfortable to be welcomed into a home so easily.

"_Just training to last without heat_," he responded, a bit breathless. His mask was slightly twisted and out of place, and he brought his right hand up to remove it. Awkwardly, he added in small talk, "_And it's been hours since I've had something to eat._..." To the point, he faced Raph full on and sheepishly held his left arm out towards him. "_Would you wrap my bandage_?"

He hesitated, noticing the homeowner's prolonged gaze as his mask fell away.

"_What are you staring at_?"

Raph blinked out of his stupor, a bit embarrassed. "_Nothing_! _Your hair_..._in the moon_..._light_?"

The other turtle's what-the-hell stare made the shine of the moon against his _bald_ green head all the more apparent. Raph swiftly changed the subject.

"_You look familiar_."

He blinked, noticing the stranger swaying. He reached out.

"..._Can you make it_?"

The ninja waved him off. "_Just trained kind of hard today_---_and would this cut stop bleeding_?" He cast a brief glare at the wound before continuing. "_Anyway_..." He frowned, noticing Raphael's stare once more. "_What_?"

Raph shook out of it again. "_Nothing_." Unsure, he added, "_Your mask reminded me of_--"

A chuckle made him stop. "_Don't usually 'remind people of'_. _Who is he_?"

"She _died_." Raph felt himself grimace at the memory. "_Her name was Venus_--"

"_It's loose again_." The stranger interrupted inadvertently. He looked up then, with an ashamed frown. "_Sorry about your friend_..." He stepped towards Raph, offering his arm with a slight humility now. "_Could you wrap my bandage_?"

Raph slowly brought his hands to the loose ends of gauze; he was never good with this kind of stuff. "_Well_..."

A glance. "_Yeah_?" A cringe. "_Ow_."

Raph immediately let go of the too-tight bind he'd made. "_Shit, the blood_---_it's_---"

"_Running_," the stranger finished with a strange tone and a blank gaze. He held up his arm where a new patch of dark had soiled through the bandages and smiled. "_I like it between my_--"

"You can_ leave now_, _you weirdo_," Raph cut in, suddenly wondering about the sanity of this ninja. He had the front door opened and the stranger pushed out in a matter of seconds. "_Later_; _goodnight_."

Raphael paused as the door clicked into place, hand still on the knob. His thoughts swirled around the other turtle's wound, the way he shook, his unfocused gaze... And he hadn't eaten, either, right? Raph knew he'd be babbling weird shit, too, if he had all those things going wrong with him. If Raph had let him stay, he could've eaten dinner with him and Casey. But... Raphael looked at the entrance where the stranger had taken his leave. It was too late to ask now. He sighed, turning away from the door.

He was stepping away by the time three familiar knocks on the wood sounded through the room, and immediately he was pulling open the door, brushing his fingers over his head for casual effect. "_It got loose again_?"

"_No_! _I think that I dropped my mask_." The turtle practically pushed him aside, or would've if Raph hadn't moved and opened the door wider in his wake.

"_I know I've seen you out_---_in the sun_..._it was in the past month_." For some reason, the otherwise hotheaded one didn't mind as much as he thought he should, closing the door before turning around to face this stranger. His gaze drifted to the wound and he gestured towards it. "_It came undone_."

The not-so-much-a-stranger-now ignored this, eyes making a sweep on the dim-lit room. "_The blue one I had on when I walked in the door_. _I'm so sure_..." He began to fold to his knees. "_Is it on the floor_?"

Raph raised an eye-ridge, following him with his gaze. "_The floor_?"

The ninja proceeded to crouch down on his hands and knees, looking underneath the furniture. "_They say that I have the best swords_..._below Fourteenth Street_. _Is it true_?" He glanced over his shoulder to flash a sly grin at Raph.

The latter blinked in confusion. "What the fuck're you talkin'--?"

He snickered, shaking his head before returning to his search. "_You're staring again_."

"No, I'm not!" Raph blinked, studying the ninjaken strapped across the other turtle's back. "_I mean, you do_..._got some nice_---Wait, what the _hell_?" He hurled an accusing finger at the stranger, stepping forward. "_You look familiar_!"

"_Like the girl you mentioned_."

"_Only with that mask_, _but I'm sure I've seen you somewhere else_."

The ninja paused with a frown, straightening up to kneel to face the homeowner. "_Do you go to Master Splinter's Dojo_? _That's where I stay_. _I train_." He held his hands out. "Help me look?"

"Yeah!" Raph exclaimed as his memories clicked into place. He dropped to his knees at his visitor's side, his expression pulled into slight disdain. "_He puts you through some tough crud_."

The stranger shrugged, on his hands and knees again, searching for his mask. "_Made me stronger_."

"_I didn't recognize you without more cuts_..." Raph let his gaze linger on a certain long scar along the stranger's thigh; he remembered how much it had bled during a fight with a challenger to the dojo, along with a variation of other bloody patterns... That was last month.

The stranger glanced up, meeting Raph's eyes with a smile. "_You could wrap my bandage_." He held up his injured arm. When Raphael's stare bore upon it, but his hands didn't reach for it, the stranger frowned. "_Why won't you wrap my bandage_?"

He jumped as Raph jolted upwards and then he winced as Raph grabbed his wrist none too gently. "_Why don't you forget that stuff_? _You look like you're my age_."

"_I could be_... _I'm just about sixteen_." There was glint of half-pride and half-sadness in his expression when he added, "_Just taught I should be strong_."

Raph rolled his eyes. "_I once was taught I 'should be strong'_." The stranger stared at him expectantly, so he elaborated: "_I used to shiver like that_."

The stranger's eyes narrowed. "To train the mind, I told you--"

"_I used to sweat_."

"..._Training the bod_--"

"_Yeah_,_ right_,_ I used to have your Sensei_."

The ninja's gaze softened and he looked at his hands. "_Now and then I tend to_--"

"_Uh-huh_."

"--_over work_."

Raph looked down as his hand brushed over something soft on the shadowed floor. "Oh, here it--"

"What's that?"

The red-clad turtle hurriedly tucked the item from the stranger's view and tossed it across the room, into the shadows. Suddenly, he didn't want his visitor to leave. "...It's my roommate's boxers."

A sigh sounded and the stranger was holding his arm towards Raphael once more. "_Could you wrap my bandage_?" He blinked, noticing that the hands that accepted the work were instead undoing the wraps. "_Hey_, _what're you doing to my bandage_?"

"..._We have to change it now_," was the explanation. Raph's voice came gruff still, but soft this time around as he undid the stained gauze. Even though the blood had begun to clot, he still groped the floor around him until he found something that resembled a rag and pressed it to the wound.

"_At least the blood stopped_. Though, _thank you for the cloth_."

"_Maybe it's not a cloth at all_." Raph's voice was suddenly thick with his mouth twisted into a grimace as he began to recognize it under light. "_My roommate always leaves used boxers lying around_."

"_GET IT OFF ME_!" The alarm that rang out startled Raph so that it took him a while to rid of the article of underwear and he had to grab the ninja's hand to stop him from flailing. At the contact, the other turtle's volume died as his eyes met Raph's. "..._Get it off me_..."

"..._Three fingers_," Raph whispered, hand against his visitor's.

"_You_, _too_," the ninja responded, studying the two hands together. "_Steady_. _Like my dad's_..." His sly smile stretched across his face and he pulled Raph to his feet, backing away as he unsheathed a sword. "_Wanna spar_?"

Raph's own face split into an excited grin, spinning his sais and getting into fighting stance. "_With you_?"

"_No_." The other turtle rolled his eyes with the ring of sarcasm, still with that smile as he looked back to Raphael. He unsheathed his second sword. "_With my dad_."

The red-clad turtle laughed. "_I'm Raph_."

"_Now you know_, _now you know_---I'm..." He ran forward. "_Leeeeeooooo_!"

And the rhythmic cries of steel clashing with steel began.


End file.
